Maersk CEO: Autonomous ships unlikely in the near future

Soren Skou, the CEO of one of the world’s biggest shipping companies, Maersk, claimed that is very unlikely for the shipping industry to see container vessels operating without humans in the immediate future.

Even though Maersk has significantly reduced crew sizes to promote automation, a complete lack of humans onboard ships is not feasible right now, Mr. Skou said, according to Bloomberg. He specifically noted that, the operation of 400-meter long container ships, weighing 200,000 tonnes can not be operated without humans.

According to Maersk, containerships are not expected to be much bigger. In this aspect, not using crews will not be beneficial. However, the company does not exclude this possibility, as it developed an autonomous tug boat.

However, Mr. Skou highlighted that a turn in automation shipping is not one of Maersk's priorities at this point.